December 1941
Reunited in the United States, Fritz and Hedda change their German-sounding surname from "Stern" to "Stafford." Hedda, however, soon begins exhibiting her work as "Hedda Sterne," adding an "e" to the end of her former married name. In this way, she maintains a connection to the name she exhibited under in Europe.
1942
Establishes a studio in New York on East 50th Street, and becomes close friends with her neighbors, Peggy Guggenheim and Max Ernst, as well as other ex-patriots including as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Meets many artists through Guggenheim, including Piet Mondrian, Frederick Kiesler, Marcel Duchamp, and André Breton.
Included in her first group exhibition in the United States, First Papers of Surrealism, at Whitelaw Reid Mansion, New York (October 14 - November 7), curated by Marcel Duchamp and André Breton as a benefit for the Coordinating Council of French Relief Societies. Continues her work in collage, and begins a new series of paintings inspired by children's art, focusing on memories of her childhood in Romania.
Image: Hedda Sterne and her painting, c. 1943